Insurance provider or broker recommendations pls

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Fjord John

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Hi all

My GJW renewal up from £536 to £692. Might shop around.

34 foot twin screw GRP boat, mostly inland, one or two east coast trips.

Any thoughts on broker or providers to approach?

Thanks John.
 
John

Have you been back in touch with your company to see if they will reduce. I am also with GJW and mine also went up by £150. I called the customer services team and asked if they had made a mistake with the renewal as it had gone up so much. He went away and reduced it by £120.
 
alandalus11 said:
John

Have you been back in touch with your company to see if they will reduce. I am also with GJW and mine also went up by £150. I called the customer services team and asked if they had made a mistake with the renewal as it had gone up so much. He went away and reduced it by £120.
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I never do that.

If they could do it with a £30 increase it just proves that they are trying it on with the £150 increase, seems dishonest to me.

We are with Porthcawl, ours went up about a fiver, same as last year.
 
Having checked around and a £30 increase was good. Others were quoting similar so I was happy with the final price quoted. In fact last year my premium actually went down by £20. I agree that providing an excessive quote and then reducing seems dishonest but then it seems quite a lot of companies do that in the hope that apathy will take over and people will accept the first quote provided. I get that a lot with my car insurance. You just need to do the research and see what premiums others are charging and then go back to your insurer with that. If they don't reduce then walk.
 
Fjord John said:
Hi all

My GJW renewal up from £536 to £692. Might shop around.

34 foot twin screw GRP boat, mostly inland, one or two east coast trips.

Any thoughts on broker or providers to approach?

Thanks John.
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I used craftinsure for years and found them good. Including a few claims and some non standard clauses. Instant online quote on their website.
 
It’s actually very hard to give valuable advice on companies if price is main driver. Each company throughout year will be looking to balance book so price up/down plus brokers have about 30-40% commission margin to attract retain book. So while say GJW will be good one year not next. We are with Craftinsure and this years renewal I had time to obtain 10 quotes from major players and remained with Craftinsure. In prior years have used GJW and Navigators directly. I would suggest in addition to these you try HavenKJ, . I also approached a PCW for a quote but not any better. Clearly you need to be careful to ensure coverage levels remain and meet needs when shopping around.
 
Fjord John said:
Thanks, just checking I’ve got the right entity. Is it Porthcawl Insurance
Consultants limited?
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Yes. Their customer service is impeccable I have to say. Very comprehensive policy documents and included is cover during craning. I think what surprised me most was specific cover for the vessel recovery after sinking. Never found that in the policy from N andG. Not saying it's not there, but............
I have no connection with this company.
 
As my boat is coming up to 20 years old and I'm currently with Craftinsure, I'll need to get a survey to comply with their terms.
Has anyone else approached them to see if the 20 year survey requirement can be delayed?
 
trialframe said:
As my boat is coming up to 20 years old and I'm currently with Craftinsure, I'll need to get a survey to comply with their terms.
Has anyone else approached them to see if the 20 year survey requirement can be delayed?
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I had this with another insurer, can't remember which one, but they initially requested a survey but when challenged they agreed for me to take photos following a list of specific areas, which I did and the insurance continued for a few more years. However, if that doesn't work Porthcawl will cover you and probably at a better price and policy.
 
More important than the price to insure is how they handle claims. I had a very poor experience with GJW. Not only id they put all the organising with me in a strange (to me) place they were only prepared to pay a partial refund. I dsicussed it with a commercial marine insurance broker who reviewed my policy details and he felt that really they could do what they wanted in terms of paying on claims and had no real obligations.

Maybe GJW are increasing the cost of the policy so that they can actually pay out on damage to boats.
 
It's odd isn't it - my experience with GJW when I had to claim couldn't have been better!

So I had a canopy ripped apart on a mooring due to high winds.

The new canopy was a better design, more zips / windows etc... Upgraded from aluminium poles to decent Stainless ones and so on

Total cost back then (nineties) was about £1700 - they paid £1500 and I paid £200 "betterment" and my excess as the canopy was many years old when it got damaged - I thought that was really good...
 
Thanks for all the replies. I was torn between Craft Insure and Porthcawl. Craft Insure, because the quote was quite good and I had a claim with Navigators General (same company I think) years ago and they gave great service. I decided to go with Porthcawl in the end as they had the lower premium (I’ve just had some massive bills on the boat) and because of a couple of positive comments on here. About £200 less than GJW. Just thought I’d let you know the outcome. Thanks again. John (FYI ~ both Porthcawl and Craft Insure double the excess for under water strikes)
 
Craftinsure put our premium up by roughly 15% last year and now another 15% this year as well (we've made no claims, never have in 17 years)

I saw Visicover mentioned on here, so gave them a go... and their quote was over £100 less than Craftinsure, so we have switched to them. Policy seems ok.

All other quotes we got were vastly more expensive than Craftinsure.
 
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